1. Technical Field
The present invention is related generally to electronic messages transmitted from and to users of a data processing system, and more particularly, to screening of such messages.
2. Description of Related Art
The proliferation of e-mail has bad many beneficial effects, but has unfortunately had at least one negative side effect. That is, there has also been a proliferation in junk e-mail, also known as xe2x80x9cspam,xe2x80x9d the receipt of which is often unwanted by a computer user. Not only is unwanted junk e-mail a nuisance to the recipient, but data processing resources which could be put to better use are devoted to processing the unwanted e-mail.
Furthermore, other types of electronic messages are also popular, such as xe2x80x9cinstant messagingxe2x80x9d which is communicated in a somewhat different way than e-mail. Instant messaging has certain privacy features which tend to make this communication medium less subject to unwanted messages. For example, in some instant messaging systems a user limits whose instant messages the user will receive by specific enumeration of authorized senders. It is nevertheless anticipated that unwanted electronic messages may rise to a burdensome level, even in communication media other than just e-mail. Therefore a need exists to reduce the burden on users who are targets of unwanted electronic messages, including e-mail, and to discourage the sending of spam.
The present invention addresses these needs by way of a method, system, apparatus and computer program product for screening electronic messages, wherein a sentry (a.k.a. xe2x80x9cscreening agent,xe2x80x9d a.k.a. xe2x80x9cscreening toolxe2x80x9d) determines whether electronic messages to a receiver include respective passes from the receiver. Responsive to such a message having a pass, the receiver is notified about the message. Responsive to the message not having a pass, a notice for the sender is generated about a pass for the message. Ultimately the pass is generated and sent, on behalf of the designated receiver of the message, to the sender. Unless the sender of the electronic message receives the pass which was returned to the sender by a screening agent for the designated receiver, and the sender returns the pass to the receiver, then the screening agent discards the message and the receiver will not ever be burdened with the message. Thus, if the sender""s message has an invalid electronic message reply address, as is frequently the case for mass marketing senders, the sender will never receive the pass, and the receiver""s screening agent will discard the message. Both the pass generation and sender notification may be without regard for the identity of the sender. That is, responsive to every message for which the screening agent has not already generated a pass, the recipient""s screening agent automatically generates a pass and sender notification. Therefore, no significant burden is placed on the designated recipient even to merely set up rules for screening messages.
It is an advantage of the invention that unless the sender of a first electronic message obtains a pass and returns it to the designated receiver, then the screening agent for the receiver may discard the first message and the designated receiver will not ever be burdened with the message. In addition, it is an advantage that the invention will discourage the use of invalid reply addresses, such as is widely done by mass marketing agents. This will tend to improve the ability of a recipient of unwanted e-mail to determine who is the sender of the e-mail, thereby providing the recipient more avenues for counteraction, which will tend to reduce unwanted messages.
In a feature of the above described embodiment, the designated recipient""s screening agent automatically generates a notification for the sender, which may include automatically generating a pass and automatically sending the pass to the sender. It is an advantage of these features that for the designated recipient of an electronic message, the message screening is transparent, placing no significant burden on the designated recipient to screen messages one-by-one, i.e., on a case by case basis.
These and other advantages of the invention will be further apparent from the following drawings and detailed description.